I Am More Than "Just A Mommy Blogger" – feat. MammaChef Jozi!

Over the course of the series, I will be featuring five ladies, who are all moms who blog. The aim of this series is to find out a bit more about what they do other than being moms and bloggers because, as we all know, we wear so many different ‘hats’ that to pigeonhole us into just one category isn’t the smartest thing to do.

For this first week I am featuring the lovely Jeanne-Riette from Mamma Chef Of Jozi. When she isn’t being a mom and blogging, she is a business owner and entrepreneur who runs her own HR and Payroll consulting agency.

So, Jeanne-Riëtte, tell us a bit more about you?

I have been blessed with two beautiful boys, an amazing husband and step daughter and a name that nobody can pronounce – my name is Jeanne-Riëtte and I blog at MammaChef Jozi.

Life has taken some interesting twists and turns to bring me to where I am today and I simply wouldn’t have it any other way! We are a true modern family living in lovely, lively Johannesburg. Having been a housewife in a small town for some time, I suddenly found myself at 29 with a four-month old baby, going through a divorce and living with a friend/angel in Joburg. Fast Forward eight years on and my husband and I now have a daughter who is 21 (his), an eight year old sports nut (mine) and a four-year old boy with the most colourful imagination (ours)… and don’t forget the dog!

I started my career a little later than most, however with a degree in Industrial Psychology and a lot of intervention from the universe I got a temp job doing admin for a labour lawyer. This grew to later spending a few years as HR and Payroll Manager for a group of companies, then to consulting and a while later I started my own HR Consulting company. I partnered with a recruitment specialist to form a complete package, providing recruitment and outsourced HR and Payroll to businesses in Gauteng – Majenta Personnel.

I cook every day, weekends included. We do have the occasional takeaway or toasted cheese but I like to cook healthy and balanced meals. I cook from scratch so that I know what goes into our food and I also prefer to use organic produce so that we know where our food comes from. This saves me money and really doesn’t take as much time as you would think!

How did your blog start?

I started with a family What’sApp group, sharing what’s for dinner with photos. This eventually spread to colleagues and friends. One day someone suggested I start a Facebook page and as I have always wanted to write and have an ongoing creative outlet, I just decided to go for it!

I absolutely love every minute of it and the idea isn’t to charge money or make anything from it. It’s just my little space on the interweb, to inspire, to share ideas, share healthy meals and spread some love!

Why Do I Love MammaChef Jozi?

Have you seen the blog? It is beautiful. Every single post is stunning. Not only will you find posts about food, but there is an entire section dedicated to Inspiration. Don’t we all need a bit of that every now and then?

Her recipes are inspiring. They really are simple, easy to make from scratch and not intimidating for those of us who just cook to survive and feed our families, not because we know what we’re doing really.

One of the recipes I personally tried a few months ago was this one – it was so easy and my kids ate it without even arguing #winning:

Newly launched on the MammaChef Jozi website is this beautiful weekly Meal Planner. MammaChef Jozi will be launching her new Free Printable Recipe cards on her site, so stand by for those which will become available over the following week. Those will be available directly on the MammaChef Jozi website so make sure you are following her on her various social media platforms for when they are available! They are the same stunning design as the Meal Plan with easy and simple instructions on how to cook the perfect family meals!

I know I’ve added lots of links to her social media already, but because I love sharing the blog love, here they all are again:

Oh I love that your blog started so organically, growing out of something you did for fun. That’s fab. And it’s amazing how life’s horrors can actually lead us to the things we have always dreamed of. Really interesting posts and I’m popping over to follow your social accounts now 🙂 #ablogginggoodtime